Trade and Product Classification Guide

Trade and Product Classification Guide

TL;DR: HS for customs, CPC to bridge trade and industry, UNSPSC for procurement (77K codes). This guide shows how the trade classification systems relate, which one to use, and how to navigate between them with 11,686+ crosswalk edges.

System comparison

How these systems relate

The HS family tree

The Harmonized System (HS) is the foundation of international trade classification. Other systems build on it.

graph TD
  HS["HS 2022 (WCO)\n6,960 codes\nGlobal foundation"] --> HTS["HTS (US)\nUS-specific subheadings"]
  HS --> CN["CN 2024 (EU)\nEU-specific subheadings"]
  HS --> AHTN["ASEAN Tariff (AHTN)\nSoutheast Asia"]
  HS --> NCM["MERCOSUR Tariff (NCM)\nSouth America"]
  HS --> AFCFTA["AfCFTA Tariff\nAfrica"]
  HS --> GCC["GCC Common Tariff\nGulf States"]

Every country that trades internationally uses HS at the 6-digit level. National extensions add more digits for country-specific detail.

The statistical bridge

CPC v2.1 bridges product classification and industry classification. This is where trade meets production.

graph LR
  HS["HS 2022\n6,960 trade codes"] <-->|11,686 edges| CPC["CPC v2.1\n4,596 product codes"]
  CPC <-->|5,430 edges| ISIC["ISIC Rev 4\n766 industry codes"]
  CPC -.-> UNSPSC["UNSPSC v24\n77,337 procurement codes"]

This means you can trace: a trade code (HS) to its product category (CPC) to the industry that produces it (ISIC/NAICS).

Aggregation for statistics

SITC and BEC aggregate trade data at higher levels for economic analysis:

graph TD
  HS["HS 2022\n6,960 detailed codes"] --> SITC["SITC Rev 4\n77 codes\nTrade flow analysis"]
  HS --> BEC["BEC Rev 5\n29 codes\nEconomic category analysis"]
  BEC --> SNA["Maps to SNA\ncategories"]

Which system to use

HS code structure

HS codes use a hierarchical 6-digit structure:

National extensions add further digits. HTS (US) goes up to 10 digits. CN (EU) uses 8 digits.

CPC code structure

CPC v2.1 uses a 5-level hierarchy:

UNSPSC structure

UNSPSC uses an 8-digit hierarchy across 4 levels:

With 77,337 codes, UNSPSC is the most detailed product classification available. It is widely used in procurement platforms and spend analytics.

Crosswalk navigation

Translate an HS code to an industry

# Get CPC equivalences for an HS code
curl https://worldoftaxonomy.com/api/v1/systems/hs_2022/nodes/0101/equivalences

# Translate HS code to all connected systems
curl https://worldoftaxonomy.com/api/v1/systems/hs_2022/nodes/0101/translations

Find trade codes for an industry

# Start from a NAICS code, get all translations including HS/CPC
curl https://worldoftaxonomy.com/api/v1/systems/naics_2022/nodes/1111/translations

# Or use the search to find trade codes by product name
curl "https://worldoftaxonomy.com/api/v1/search?q=wheat&grouped=true"

Find gaps

# HS codes with no CPC equivalent
curl "https://worldoftaxonomy.com/api/v1/diff?a=hs_2022&b=cpc_v21"

Use cases

MCP tools for trade classification